HB718: HB718 Women's Golf Week; first week of April each year; provide

This bill text is a Senate committee substitute for HB 718 and no longer deals with the bill's original subject (a Women's Golf Week designation). Instead it rewrites Georgia's beer manufacturing law (O.C.G.A. § 3-5-24.1), which lets brewers sell malt beverages directly to customers at their licensed premises. The substitute creates a new category called a 'satellite tasting room,' a separate retail location under common ownership with the brewer where the brewer can sell its own beer for on-site consumption, up to two such rooms per brewer. Unlike the brewer's main licensed premises, a satellite tasting room cannot receive beer transferred from the brewery; it must buy its beer through a licensed wholesaler, and it must offer at least one educational feature such as brewery history displays or guided tastings. The rules on production limits, taxes, and sales hours in the existing law are also renumbered and cross-referenced to include the new satellite rooms. Regulatory provisions take effect upon the Governor's signature; the rest of the Act takes effect July 1, 2026.

• Creates a new licensed category, the 'satellite tasting room,' letting a brewer sell its own malt beverages at a second retail site up to two locations under common ownership with the brewery.
• Requires satellite tasting rooms to buy their beer from a licensed wholesaler rather than receiving it transferred directly from the brewer's production site.
• Requires each satellite tasting room to offer at least one educational feature, such as brand history displays, scheduled tastings, or ingredient and process exhibits.
• Directs the state revenue commissioner to write rules and regulations covering licensing, registration, reporting, and inspection of satellite tasting rooms.
• Keeps existing limits in place, such as the 6,000 barrel annual cap on sales and the 288 ounce daily limit for off-premises consumption, and applies related tax and hours-of-sale rules to the new rooms.
• Sets the regulatory provisions to take effect once the Governor signs the bill, with the rest of the law taking effect July 1, 2026.

Georgia craft brewers and brewery owners, who could open satellite tasting rooms; licensed beer wholesalers, who would supply those rooms; and the Georgia Department of Revenue, which would write and enforce new licensing rules for the new retail locations.

Brewers would gain a new way to sell beer directly to customers away from their production facility, potentially expanding their retail footprint, while still relying on wholesalers for supply at those satellite locations rather than shipping beer from the brewery itself.

• Section 1 amends O.C.G.A. § 3-5-24.1 to add a definition of 'satellite tasting room' as a separate location under common ownership with the brewer for retail sales to individuals.
• Subsection (h) authorizes a brewer to operate up to two satellite tasting rooms, subject to registration, reporting, and inspection rules set by the commissioner.
• Satellite tasting rooms must buy beer from a licensed wholesaler and cannot receive beer transferred directly from the brewer's licensed premises.
• Satellite tasting rooms must provide at least one educational experience, such as brand history, guided tastings, signage, or ingredient displays.
• Existing production, tax remittance, and sales-hours rules in subsections (d) and (e) are extended to cover sales made at satellite tasting rooms.
• Section 2 sets the effective date: regulatory rulemaking provisions apply upon the Governor's approval, while all other provisions take effect July 1, 2026.

1. 2026-03-23Senate Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute (Senate)
2. 2026-01-12Senate Recommitted (Senate)
3. 2026-01-12Senate Taken from Table (Senate)
4. 2025-04-02Senate Tabled (Senate)
5. 2025-03-21Senate Read Second Time (Senate)
6. 2025-03-20Senate Committee Favorably Reported (Senate)
7. 2025-03-10Senate Read and Referred (Senate)
8. 2025-03-06House Passed/Adopted (House)

• Sheila Jones (D, HD-060)Primary sponsor
• Timothy Bearden (R, SD-030)

1. PassedHouse voteMarch 6, 2025

   174 yea, 1 nay (2 not voting, 3 absent)

   Passage: House Vote #235

• alcohol licensing
• craft breweries
• malt beverage sales
• business regulation